


Keep on Haunting Me

by areyouarealmonster



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: ColdAtom Week 2017, Hurt/Comfort, Lisa and Ray get drunk together, M/M, Time Ghost Leonard Snart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2017-05-28
Packaged: 2018-11-05 15:35:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11016372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/areyouarealmonster/pseuds/areyouarealmonster
Summary: “No, it’s okay,” Lisa says, placing a beautifully manicured hand over his wrist. “I should get used to saying it.” She takes a deep breath, rapidly blinking away tears. “Lenny is dead. He’s dead and he’s gone and he’s not coming back.”“Well, that’s thoroughly depressing,” a familiar voice drawls from behind Ray. He spins in his chair, taking in the familiar sight of Leonard Snart.“What the—” Ray stammers, stunned. Leonard’s eyes widen a fraction before he falls back into the self-assured expression Ray knows so well.“Surprised to see me, Boy Scout?” Leonard asks, with a smirk, before his eyes fall on Lisa and his expression shifts to something sadder.





	Keep on Haunting Me

**Author's Note:**

> Coldatom Week Day #1: Hurt/Comfort

“Lisa?” a male voice calls from her left. “Lisa Snart?” She spins, whipping her gold gun up and pointing it in the direction of the noise.

 

The man flings his hands in the air so fast it’s almost comedic. He doesn’t look like a cop, but one can never be too careful, especially with a bag of cash slung over your back.

 

“Do I know you?” she asks, spinning poison through the sweetness of her tone.

 

The tall man shakes his head rapidly, causing his hair to flop around a bit. He’s cute, in a kicked puppy kind of way.

 

“No, sorry, I uh, I knew your brother,” he stammers out.

 

Lisa lets her gun fall to her side. “You knew Lenny?” she asks, taking a closer look at the man. He’s certainly her brother’s type: tall, pretty, gawky. He looks like a nerd. A nerd with ridiculously large muscles. Interesting.

 

“Yeah,” the man says. “We, uh, traveled together. In a way. Sort of.”

 

Lisa raises one perfectly plucked eyebrow at him, instantly making the connection. “You’re one of those time traveling do-gooders who got him killed?”

 

The man looks down and away from her, and Lisa can see his overly large eyes filling with tears.

 

“Yeah,” he says quietly, and Lisa sighs.

 

“Okay,” she says. “Come with me.” She leads the way to where her motorcycle is parked, not waiting to see if he follows. He does, sputtering questions. God, he must have driven Lenny crazy, the way he runs his mouth. Lisa puts on her helmet and swings a leg over her bike. “Get on,” she says, wedging the bag of cash between her thighs.

 

“Wait, what?” the man asks.

 

She rolls her eyes at him. “Get on, dumbass. I’m in the middle of a heist, and you’re gonna get me caught if you keep blabbing.”

 

“Oh, uh, right,” he stammers out, and gets on the bike, wrapping his arms around Lisa’s waist. “Um, is this okay?”

 

“Shut up, pretty,” she tells him, turning the motorcycle on and driving away. It’s not far to the safe house she’d been planning to use, and it’s not like she’ll need to use it again any time soon, so she doesn’t feel like bringing this tall, good-looking stranger there is any danger to her loot.

 

They get to the alley next to the safe house and Lisa parks the motorcycle, turning it off and pulling off her helmet. The man releases her waist quickly, stumbling off the bike.

 

“Where are we?” he asks.

 

Lisa shrugs. “Just a place.” She steps off the bike with her bag and examines him more closely, now that she’s not worried about the police coming around the corner and catching her. He definitely looks like a goody-two-shoes, and she can only imagine the fun Lenny must have had teasing him. “I didn’t catch your name,” she says, turning with a flip of her hair to walk inside the building.

 

“Oh, uh, it’s Ray,” the man—Ray—says, trailing along behind her. “Ray Palmer.”

 

That stops her for a second. “Of Palmer Technologies?” she asks, glancing over her shoulder at him.

 

“Formerly,” he replies, with a slightly sad half-smile.

 

“Hmm.” Lisa opens the door to the apartment and steps inside, throwing the bag down carelessly on the floor. “Now,” she says, flipping around to face him and jumping up to sit on the low, wooden kitchen table, “why did you fuck-ups let my brother die?”

 

Ray flounders, and Lisa enjoys watching his mouth open and close like a fish. Finally, he seems to get his bearings and find his words.

 

“He didn’t leave us with much of a choice, unfortunately. I was unconscious—Mick knocked me out, took my place. Then Sn—then Leonard knocked _him_ out, took his place. It was, uh, kind of a domino effect? I didn’t… _I_ was supposed to die, Lisa, not your brother. I’m sorry.” He sounds so sincere, those large brown eyes filling up yet again with unshed tears.

 

Lisa considers that for a minute, her tongue pressed against the teeth in the top corner of her mouth. “Still blaming you,” she finally says. “Not _you_ you, but the lot of you. You—what did Cisco call you?—oh yeah, _Legends_.” She spits the word out. “You _Legends_ killed my brother. And I had to find out from Cisco!” She’s getting pissed now, her hand resting on the handle of her gold gun.

 

Ray holds his hands out in front of him, clearly trying to be placating, but Lisa sees red as she jumps down and advances on him. Even with her stilettos, he’s got a good few inches on her, but he still backs up, eyes wide and scared as she moves closer. “I had to find out from Cisco, _months later_ , that my brother _died_ for you sorry sacks of shit.” She unholsters her gun as she goes, powering it up and pressing it against his chest once she’s successfully backed him up against the nearest wall.

 

Ray lets her. He lets her back him up, lets her rest her gold gun against his chest. What finally knocks the wind out of Lisa’s sails is the way he leans into it after a minute, just a bit, his eyes fluttering shut. Lisa recognizes that feeling; she knows that desperation all too well. He’s ready to die, and Lisa can relate. Not that she wants to—no, she wants to live. But, well, living without Lenny is even emptier than she’d expected. It’s hard to fight to stay alive when you can’t figure out what you’re living for in the first place.

 

She powers down her gun, clicking it back into her holster. “Okay,” she says, stepping back and walking over to the cabinet. She pulls out two glasses and the bottle of top-shelf scotch her brother stole to christen the safe house. “Okay.”

 

Lisa plops down at the table, pouring a healthy amount of scotch into each glass. Ray looks at her, mystified, until she gestures to him to join her. He does, walking over tentatively, like she’s going to pull her gun on him again. Lisa pushes the second glass at him as he sits down gingerly.

 

“To Lenny,” Lisa says, picking up her glass.

 

Ray mirrors her movement, clinking their glasses together. “To Leonard,” he says, and he and Lisa both take a large gulp, letting the scotch burn its way down their throats.

 

* * *

 

“So, you’re—you’re telling me that, that my brother—” Lisa pauses to laugh, as Ray takes another swig.

 

“Mmm, yeah, so Lenny—uh, Leonard, he uh, yeah, he seemed very, very comfortable on horseback.” Lisa can’t stop laughing, and Ray feels himself caught up in her glee. “It was very majestic,” he slurs out, the bottle almost empty between the both of them. “He rode in on his white horse and scooped up the, uh, the leader of this, this gang we were fighting.”

 

“Oh my god!” Lisa cackles. “I wish I could’a seen that!”

 

Ray grins at her, picturing the scene clearly in his mind. “Then he, he lectured me on Miranda Rights, because apparently, _apparently_ , they wouldn’t be around for another hundred years—he knew when they came about!”

 

Lisa shakes her head, still giggling. “Of course he did, Lenny knows the law back to front.”

 

“Knew,” Ray corrects her, without thinking.

 

“Oh,” Lisa says, her expression falling. “Right, of course. He _knew_ the law. He just, uh, didn’t follow it.”

 

They smile sadly at each other.

 

“Sorry,” Ray says after a minute. “Didn’t mean to, you know, bring the mood down.”

 

“No, it’s okay,” Lisa says, placing a beautifully manicured hand over his wrist. “I should get used to saying it.” She takes a deep breath, rapidly blinking away tears. “Lenny is dead. He’s dead and he’s gone and he’s not coming back.”

 

“Well, _that’s_ thoroughly depressing,” a familiar voice drawls from behind Ray. He spins in his chair, taking in the familiar sight of Leonard Snart.

 

“What the—” Ray stammers, stunned. Leonard’s eyes widen a fraction before he falls back into the self-assured expression Ray knows so well.

 

“Surprised to see me, Boy Scout?” Leonard asks, with a smirk, before his eyes fall on Lisa and his expression shifts to something sadder.

 

“What’s going on?” Lisa asks. “What are you looking at?”

 

Ray turns back to her. “Can you not—can you not see him?”

 

“See who? Ray, you’re drunk, nobody’s there,” Lisa tells him, peering off into the empty space over Ray’s shoulder.

 

Leonard looks grim, his eyes focused on his sister.

 

Ray looks back and forth between Lisa, who is currently looking perplexed, and Leonard, who is leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.

 

“Mick…wasn’t hallucinating…?” Ray posits, and Leonard—Leonard’s ghost?—shrugs. “I gotta, I gotta get back to the Waverider, this isn’t right, something’s going on.” Ray tries to stand and almost falls over.

 

“Woah,” Lisa says, snickering, “steady on there, cowboy.”

 

Leonard echoes his sister’s laugh. “Yeah, Raymond, what’s the rush? I’ll still be dead tomorrow.”

 

“Come on, we gotta go,” Ray says, pulling her up and out of her chair and towards the door.

 

Lisa tries to pull out of his grasp and he releases her automatically. She just stands there, looking at him. “What’s the rush? What’s going on? You’re not making any sense, tall, dorky, and handsome.”

 

“Nice one, sis,” Leonard says, back to smirking. “I’ll have to remember that for later.”

 

“I, um.” Ray tries to figure out how to explain it to Lisa, through the fog of alcohol slowing his thought processes, and the distraction of Leonard’s ghostly presence. “Okay, so Mick was hallucinating Leonard, back on the Waverider, and we thought it was grief, but I can see Leonard right now, right there,” he tells her, pointing at the space Leonard’s ghost is occupying.

 

“Ray, you’re _drunk_ ,” she reminds him again, her voice a mix of sad and angry. “There’s nothing there, especially not my brother. And, if he was there, why can you see him but I can’t?”

 

Ray waves his hand vaguely in the air. “Wibbly wobbly….timey wimey—

 

“Are you quoting _Doctor Who_ at my sister?” Leonard asks, his voice mixing and intertwining with Ray’s. It’s _very_ distracting.

 

“—um, probably something about the time stream, because I’m thinking, I’m thinking he’s like, a time ghost, or something, caught in the, well, in the time stream? I’m still working on that, I’ll get back to you on it. But we have to get to the Waverider so I can talk to Rip, he might know something, and Gideon, she might have some ideas, come on.” Ray holds his hand out to a stunned Lisa.

 

“I didn’t understand half of what you said but, uh, okay?” She places her hand in his and lets him drag her out of the safe house, leaving the bag of cash behind.

 

When Ray turns around on his way out the door, Leonard has disappeared.

 

The two of them stumble across town, Ray babbling the whole way, thinking out loud. “—so I’m thinking he’s caught in the time stream, which would make sense, there was no body at the Oculus Wellspring when we went back to the Vanishing Point, and maybe the Time Masters came back and cleaned up the bodies, but there were other bodies there still, so why would they clean his up and not the others? And it would make sense for Mick to see him first, they were the closest, and for Marty and Amaya to not see him, because Marty wasn’t close to Leonard and Amaya never knew him, if what I’m thinking is true and it’s a combination of having spent a lot of time in the time stream and being close to him that’s causing Mick and me to see his ghost—”

 

“If you don’t stop rambling, I think I might throw up on you,” Lisa mutters at him, cutting off his stream of words and distracting him.

 

“Do you need water? Something? Can I do anything?” Ray asks, concerned for his new friend.

 

Lisa shakes her head. “Let’s just get to your ship. Wave-thingy.”

 

“Waverider,” Ray corrects and she rolls her eyes at him.

 

“Whatever.”

 

The ship is silent when Ray and Lisa finally make their way onto it. Of course—it’s the middle of the night, and the only people left on the ship are Mick and Rip, and those two certainly aren’t going to spend time together to bond, let alone having a raging party together.

 

“Gideon,” Ray says, “where’s Rip?”

 

“Mr. Hunter is asleep in his quarters,” Gideon replies.

 

“And Mick?”

 

“Drinking in his quarters.”

 

Ray sighs. “Can you tell them both to meet me on the bridge?”

 

Gideon does, and Ray heads to the bridge to meet them there. Lisa trails along beside him, clutching his arm and staring around at the ship.

 

“This is _so cool_ ,” she says, her eyes wide.

 

Ray just smiles. He remembers the feeling of stepping onto the ship for the first time, and he enjoys feeling it again through Lisa.

 

They make it onto the bridge and Ray deposits Lisa into one of the chairs. “Don’t touch anything,” he says as sternly as he possibly can—which he admits is not very—and Lisa bats her eyelashes at him.

 

“Of course not,” she replies, a picture of innocence that Ray doesn’t believe for a second, knowing her brother.

 

“Don’t worry, Dr. Palmer,” Gideon says, “I have turned off access to the controls for both of you, as you are both heavily intoxicated.”

 

“Oh, uh, thanks, Gideon,” Ray replies, slightly relieved.

 

Mick is the first to arrive, having been already awake when Ray summoned him to the bridge. As soon as he steps through the doorway, Lisa is out of her chair, rushing forward and slapping him across the face.

 

“Woah, Lisa!” Ray says, grabbing her arms and pulling her back.

 

“You didn’t tell me!” Lisa shouts at Mick, struggling against Ray’s firm grasp. “You didn’t tell me about Lenny even though I _know_ you were in town! You didn’t look for me, Mick, what the fuck?”

 

Mick stands there for a second, stunned, rubbing his face. Then he droops. “’m sorry, Lis’. I couldn’t…couldn’t tell you. Couldn’t see you break like that.”

 

Lisa stops struggling and Ray tentatively lets her go, floating his hands above her arms in case she makes another move towards the other man. He doesn’t think Mick would hurt her back, but he’s wary about the damage Lisa could do against someone who is unwilling to fight back.

 

“You still should’a told me,” Lisa says, her voice only slightly calmer. “It’s not about you, _Mick_. It’s about me, I had a right to know. He’s—he _was_ my brother. He was just _your_ friend.”

 

“Yeah, Lisa, kick his ass,” Leonard drawls, and Ray and Mick both turn to see him leaning against the center console.

 

Mick grumbles something, and then turns to Ray. “What are _you_ looking at?” he asks.

 

“Leonard,” Ray answers, tearing his eyes away from the aforementioned man and meeting Mick’s shocked eyes. “You weren’t hallucinating, Mick,” he says. “Leonard’s some sort of, uh, some sort of time ghost, I’m still figuring it out, but I can see him, now, for some reason and—”

 

“You’d best have a good reason for dragging me out of bed in the middle of the night, Dr. Palmer,” Rip says, striding into the room, fully dressed.

 

Ray explains it all again and Rip’s expression changes from annoyed to dubious to thoughtful in the span of a few sentences. It makes Ray a little dizzy—although that might be the alcohol—and he sits down to finish discussing his theories.

 

“So, you’re telling me that both you and Mr. Rory can see Mr. Snart, in the same spot?”

 

Mick and Ray nod and point simultaneously to where Leonard is lounging.

 

“And Miss Snart cannot see her brother?” Rip asks.

 

Lisa shakes her head. “Not even a little bit,” she says, her voice melancholic.

 

“Make it so she can see me,” Leonard commands, and Ray nods at him, even though it makes his head spin.

 

“We’re working on it, Leonard,” he says, but Snart doesn’t look appeased. He just darts his eyes between the four other people on the bridge, watching and waiting.

 

“Gideon,” Rip says, “are there any instances you can find of something like this happening? Someone caught in the time stream?”

 

Gideon is silent for a minute, searching her archives. “As a matter of fact, there is,” she says, “from the last timeline data we received from the Oculus, it seems as though a Time Master at one point fell into the Oculus Wellspring and was presumed dead. However, his mentor and a few other Time Masters he was close with kept seeing him in various places.”

 

“How did they get him out?” Ray asks.

 

“They didn’t,” Gideon answers. “Slowly he began to fade away, until he stopped appearing altogether. It took a few years, but they were unable to return him to his living state.”

 

The room falls silent as they turn over her words.

 

“I won’t let that happen,” Ray says, finally. “We’re gonna get him back.”

 

“We _have_ to get him back,” Lisa agrees in a small but determined voice.

 

“Yes, well, perhaps not tonight,” Rip says with a sigh. “I believe you, Dr. Palmer, Mr. Rory, but this is going to take all of us at full brainpower it seems, if we are going to figure out how to do something even the Time Masters at the height of their power were unable to. Rest assured, Mr. Snart,” Rip says, in the vaguely correct direction, “we will do our best to bring you back. I may not be captain anymore, but I think I speak for Captain Lance when I say that this is our top priority.”

 

“Tell him _thanks ever so much,_ ” Leonard drawls sarcastically, and Mick snickers.

 

“What did he say?” Rip asks.

 

“He said thanks,” Ray says, smoothing out Snart’s words.

 

Rip doesn’t look like he believes Ray, but he nods anyway. “We should all get some sleep, so we can be in top shape tomorrow. You, Dr. Palmer, should especially drink a very large amount of water before you retire, I do not relish working with you if you are hungover tomorrow.”

 

Ray salutes and tries to get up. He’s wobbly, but he stands. Out of the corner of his eye he sees Snart step forward, and then stop, as if he just remembered that he’s incorporeal and can’t steady Ray. Lisa steps in to do it instead, even though she’s as unsteady as he is.

 

“You probably need a bed for the night, huh?” Ray asks, his arm draped around Lisa’s shoulder.

 

“If you suggest sharing a bed with my sister, I will murder you the second I come back to life,” Snart says.

 

Ray shakes his head. “I was gonna suggest Sara’s room.”

 

“That’s a good idea,” Mick agrees. “And don’t worry, Snart, I wouldn’t let that happen.”

 

“Let what happen?” Lisa asks, her eyes half-shut.

 

“Nothing,” Mick tells her, and she pouts at him.

 

“What did my stupid brother say?” she asks again.

 

“He doesn’t want you to share a bed with me,” Ray explains.

 

Lisa laughs. “As _if_. You’re cute, but I wouldn’t step on Lenny’s toes like that.”

 

Ray tilts his head to the side, slowly considering Lisa’s words. “Step on his toes?”

 

Leonard growls a warning, but only Mick and Ray hear it, so Lisa keeps talking, unaware that her brother doesn’t want her to say anything.

 

“Yeah, like, you’re his type, and if what you’re saying is right, and only people who were close to him _and_ in the time stream can see him, there must be a reason you can see him, and not anyone else on the team. I mean, I know why Mick can see him, but it doesn’t sound like you and my brother were exactly _best friends_ or anything, so I’m assuming you liked him? And that he liked you. Am I wrong?”

 

Mick snickers. “Nope.”

 

“ _Mick_ ,” Leonard warns, following the three down the hallway.

 

Mick just shakes his head. “What, Snart? I’ve already told Haircut that you were flirting with him with those stupid nicknames you kept giving him. You were _dead_ , what did you want me to do?”

 

Snart just growls, deep in his throat, as Mick laughs at him.

 

“Maybe this time you won’t be such an idiot drama queen about it,” he tells Leonard.

 

Lisa laughs at that, and laughs, and Ray is confused at first, because it wasn’t _that_ funny, until Lisa collapses in on herself, and Ray realizes she’s crying. He and Mick both follow her down to the floor as she drops, and they wrap themselves around her, not caring that, in doing so, they’re wrapped around each other, too.

 

Leonard lingers at the edges, wide-eyed and worried, unable to do anything as his sister cries herself out.

 

“My brother,” she hiccups, “I tried not to hold out hope that he would come back to me so I just shoved everything down and away, and I didn’t let myself think about him, I didn’t let myself remember him, and he’s here but he’s not and I don’t know if I can lose him again, I don’t know what I’ll do if I lose him again and I’d rather not know, I’d rather not have this hope because if we can’t get him back—”

 

“We’re gonna get him back, Lisa,” Ray says, hoping he sounds sure of himself, and not lost like he feels.

 

“Can you just—” Leonard starts, and then shakes his head.

 

“What?” Ray asks, looking up.

 

“Kiss her forehead for me?” Snart asks, quietly, his face crinkled up like he’s fighting off pain.

 

Ray nods. “This is from your brother,” he says, pressing a soft kiss against Lisa’s forehead.

 

Lisa sniffs, and snuggles up against the two men holding her tight. “Tell Lenny I love him and I miss him.”

 

“He can hear you,” Mick says, and Ray peeks up to find Leonard turning his back on the three of them, his face in his hands. “He can hear you,” Mick repeats, burying his face in Lisa’s hair, his fingertips digging into Ray’s shoulder.

 

* * *

 

Leonard watches as Mick and Raymond settle Lisa into Sara’s bed. He trails along behind them, ghosting silently through the halls of the Waverider. He’s used to his footsteps making no noise, to phasing through objects that he’s normally trip over, or walls he’d run into. But, for some reason, things feel different tonight.

 

Maybe it’s because Raymond can see him now? He didn’t expect that, when he’d followed the other man to Lisa’s apartment. He didn’t expect Raymond to turn around at the sound of his voice. He hopes that Raymond hadn’t picked up on his surprise, on his confusion.

 

He hadn’t been sure, to be honest, up until that point. If this was real. If he was real.

 

But apparently it is; apparently he’s not just a figment of Mick’s imagination. Apparently he really is a ghost, haunting the halls of the Waverider. Haunting the Legends.

 

He still can’t figure out why he still disappears from sight sometimes, though. He’s always there, always watching, but sometimes Mick can see him, sometimes Mick can’t. And now, apparently, sometimes Raymond can see him.

 

So, that’s a thing, too. Raymond. Seeing him. _God_ , the look on the other man’s face when he’d turned around at the sound of Leonard’s voice. Shock and pain and sadness and _hope_ , all mixed up and swirled together, and it had left Leonard gasping.

 

And Lisa. Leonard stands in the doorway of Sara’s room for a while, watching his sister cry herself to sleep. He almost wishes he’d asked Raymond to share his bed with her, just so she wouldn’t be alone. But he knows that Lisa hates it when people see her cry, when people see her break. He’s glad it was just Mick and Raymond, to see her like that. Even if Lisa’s right, to be mad at Mick.

 

Lisa finally falls asleep, and Leonard feels weird, watching her sleep. He’s done it enough times, when she was growing up, but now she can’t see him and it feels like an invasion of her privacy. Not that he hasn’t watched his former teammates while he’s been a ghost. But this is his baby sister, this is _Lisa_ , and she deserves her space.

 

So Leonard checks in on Raymond.

 

He’s not really sure why he does it. Well, if he wanted to be honest with himself, he could probably hazard a guess. But he doesn’t want to be honest with himself.

 

Raymond’s awake, curled up at the head of his bed, knees at his chest, fully clothed, shoes on. He starts when Leonard phases through the door, and then breathes a sigh of relief.

 

“Oh, it’s you,” he says, and wipes surreptitiously at his eyes.

 

“Were you expecting someone else to walk through your _solid door_?” Leonard asks.

 

Raymond shakes his head. “No, no, I’m just. I’m still a little drunk, so I’m not sure what I was expecting. Come in?” he asks, tentatively.

 

“I’m already in, Raymond.”

 

“Right, of course.” Raymond shakes his head again, this time as if to clear it. “What’s it like?” he asks. “Being a ghost?”

 

Leonard considers his question for a minute. “Sara said something to me once, that being dead felt lonely. Like everyone you, uh, you knew was a million miles away. She wasn’t wrong. I feel…removed, from the threads of reality.”

 

“That does sound lonely,” Raymond says, sympathy clearly written on his face.

 

Leonard shrugs. “It’s not all bad. It’s not like I’m stuck on the Waverider with you morons the whole time.”

 

“You’re not?” Raymond asks.

 

“No. I guess the nice thing about being, uh, trapped in the time stream, or whatever the fuck is happening to me, is that I can go anywhere. Any time. Whenever I want. I can’t interact with anything, of course, but I can still go places.”

 

“Where have you been?” Raymond asks, his eyes lighting up.

 

“Aruba,” Leonard answers with a smirk. “Mick talked about it so much, I decided to just go. It sucked—all beaches and sand—but I went. Not that I can feel temperatures, it was just, the sun felt…hot.”

 

“Psychosomatic reaction?” Raymond asks.

 

Leonard nods. “Yeah, that sounds about right.”

 

“Not a fan of beaches, I take it,” Raymond says with a small laugh.

 

Leonard feels himself smiling, against his better wishes. It’s harder to control his reactions—he’s out of practice. He hasn’t _had to_ for so long. However long it’s been. He’s still not sure of that part. Of how long he’s been dead. Sometimes it feels like minutes, sometimes it feels like decades.

 

“Raymond,” he says, “you’ve met me. What on _earth_ would make you think that _I_ , Captain _Cold_ , would be a fan of sweating on a goddamn beach?”

 

Raymond laughs, long and loud, and Leonard smirks, proud of himself. Even if the Boy Scout is still a little drunk.

 

“God, I’ve missed you,” Raymond says, and that sobers Leonard up real quick.

 

“Yeah?” he asks, his heart—or the memory of his heart—pounding in his throat.

 

“Yeah,” Raymond replies, with a maudlin smile. “Sometimes I feel like you were the only one who, who saw me. I mean—I don’t know what I’m saying, my head feels like a brick, but you treated me like I mattered, and I miss that. I miss you.”

 

“I was an asshole to you, Raymond,” Leonard reminds him.

 

Raymond shrugs. “Yeah, but, it wasn’t mean-spirited. I mean, you, uh, Mick said—”

 

Leonard cuts him off. “I know what Mick said.”

 

“Is that not true?”

 

Leonard grimaces. “It’s true. But you didn’t know that at the time.”

 

“I knew you had my back,” Raymond says, and damn if his unwavering optimism isn’t catchy, isn’t _addicting_. “I knew you cared about me, even if I didn’t realized you were flirting with me. I knew I could trust you.”

 

Leonard has never, the entirety of the time he’s been a ghost, wanted to be corporeal as much as he does at this moment. He settles for crossing his arms across his chest and leaning back against the wall.

 

That distracts Raymond almost immediately. “How are you doing that? How are you leaning against the wall but you just walked right through my door as though it was empty air?”

 

“Not sure,” Leonard says, shrugging. “I can interact with more permanent objects; it’s harder with things that are, uh, in flux.”

 

Raymond uncurls and perches on the edge of his bed. “Try to touch me,” he says, eagerly.

 

“Raymond—”

 

“Try it. What’s the worst that could happen?” Raymond is in full scientist mode, eyes wide, and Leonard won’t lie—it’s a little hot. He can almost see the cogs working in that big brain, and he can’t help letting a small smile play across his lips as he walks forward toward the bed.

 

Raymond’s eyes glint as he leverages himself off the bed and steps forward to meet Leonard’s outstretched hand…which passes through his chest.

 

“Damn,” Raymond says, his face falling.

 

Leonard hums in agreement. “We tried,” he says, backing up.

 

“Wait,” Raymond says. “What are you thinking, when you lean against a wall?”

 

“That it’s a wall, obviously,” Leonard drawls.

 

“And when you tried to touch me?” Raymond asks.

 

Leonard just wants him to get to the point. “That you’re a goddamn Boy Scout.”

 

“Leonard—”

 

“Yeah, yeah, that you’re a person, and that I’m probably not gonna be able to touch you,” Leonard says.

 

“Close your eyes,” Raymond commands.

 

Leonard just stares at him for a minute.

 

“Come on,” Raymond continues, “I’m not gonna do anything weird, just close your eyes.”

 

Here goes nothing. Leonard closes his eyes, standing in the center of Raymond’s room.

 

“Now,” Raymond says, “clear your mind.”

 

Leonard clears his mind. He was always decent at meditation: it helped him focus on long stakeouts.

 

“Is your mind clear?” Raymond asks. Leonard nods, and Raymond continues, walking around to Leonard’s back. “I want you to lean back. There’s a wall behind you.”

 

“ _You’re_ behind me, idiot,” Leonard says.

 

Raymond sighs, and Leonard feels almost guilty.

 

“I _know_ , but that’s the point. Clear your mind, and lean back,” Raymond says. This time, Leonard tries to comply.

 

Even if this whole thing is a stupid trust fall exercise.

 

Leonard closes his eyes, taking deep breaths in and out through his nose. He lets his mind drift, his thoughts slip away. Then he falls back, and back, and stops.

 

He stops, because something warm and solid is behind him, supporting him, wrapping arms around the undersides of his elbows. Leonard tries to keep his mind clear, tries to keep calm, but Raymond is so _warm_ and Leonard hasn’t felt temperature in months (years? minutes?). He falls, hitting the ground in silence.

 

“Well,” he says, as Raymond steps around so he’s not standing _in_ Leonard, “that was…”

 

“Astonishing!” Raymond exclaims, sounding almost like a professor for a second. “See if you can replicate that, with just your hand, so I can help you up.”

 

Leonard nods, and closes his eyes again, letting his thoughts drift away once more. There’s a quick, sharp pain at his temple, but he ignores it, breathing in deep. “Try it now,” he mutters, holding his hand up. He feels Raymond’s hand in his, pulling him up, pulling him off the ground.

 

He opens his eyes and his mouth, about to say something, when the sharp pain returns to his temple and he winces, his hand turning incorporeal and slipping out of Raymond’s.

 

“What?” Raymond asks, concerned.

 

Leonard shakes his head. “Nothing, just a headache.”

 

“Have you had headaches before?” Raymond asks. “You know, when you’ve been a, a time ghost?”

 

“No,” Leonard admits, thinking back.

 

Raymond peers at him, examining him like he can _see_ Leonard’s headache. “Are you gonna be okay to try again?”

 

Leonard shoves the pain down and away. “Yeah,” he says, “Third time’s the charm.”

 

The third time is definitely not the charm.

 

As soon as Leonard clears his mind, he feels that sharp pain spreading throughout his entire body (ghostly form, whatever) and he grits his teeth, trying to stop himself from crying out.

 

“Leonard? Are you okay?” Raymond’s voice cuts through his pain, an anchor to tether himself to.

 

“No.” He opens his eyes to Raymond hovering, hands out, uselessly reaching and closing on thin air.

 

“Okay,” Raymond says. “Stop. Whatever you’re doing, stop it. Do whatever you normally do when you’re, you know, not trying to touch things.”

 

Leonard nods, panting slightly through the pain. It’s somehow both more intense than any pain he’d ever felt while he was alive and more distant, like he’s disconnected from it, but it’s an intrinsic part of him.

 

“Well, I’d say that’s enough experimenting for one night,” Leonard says, once the pain has passed.

 

“Yeah, definitely. I’m sorry,” Raymond says, still examining Leonard closely.

 

“Not your fault, Boy Scout. You couldn’t have known,” Leonard replies. His head is still twinging but he doesn’t mention it. “And you should probably go to sleep,” he suggests, seeing Raymond covering up a yawn.

 

“We’ll report these findings to the team tomorrow, and we’ll keep working on it,” Raymond says, back to grinning at Leonard.

 

“Yeah, sounds good. I’ll, uh, leave you alone now.” He phases out through the door, not waiting to hear Raymond’s answer.

 

Now to roam the hallways. Or maybe wander through Central City. He’s got the whole night ahead of him.

 

After all, ghosts don’t sleep.

 

* * *

 

Lisa wakes the next morning in an unfamiliar bed, with a massive headache. It takes her a minute to remember that she didn’t have a one-night stand (thank god), but that she got drunk with that tall drink of water who was friends with her brother.

 

Her brother, who is a ghost.

 

A ghost that she can’t even see. Just her fucking luck. “I don’t know if you can hear me, Lenny, but this sucks,” she says to the empty room. Then she sighs and wanders out of the room in search of a bathroom, and coffee.

 

“You must be Lisa,” a female voice says as she turns a corner. She flips around to find a blond woman, smiling at her. “I’m Sara, I’m the captain. Welcome aboard.”

 

“Thank you, Sara,” Lisa says, taking Sara’s proffered hand and shaking it. “Could you, uh, show me where the bathroom is?” she asks. “My mouth feels like I ate dirt.”

 

Sara laughs and leads Lisa to the ship’s bathroom. It’s a relatively large room, with a row of sinks that are covered in various makeup, razors, toothbrushes and a bunch of other random items. There are two shower stalls and two toilet stalls as well, and a pile of towels on a shelf in the corner. Sara pulls a spare toothbrush out from one of the cabinets and hands it to Lisa.

 

“Feel free to use anyone’s toothpaste, we all steal each other’s anyway. If you need to shower, go ahead, and use whatever shampoo you want since, again, we all use everyone else’s stuff. There’s a hairdryer in the cabinet. I can also have Gideon fabricate you up a new outfit, if you want.”

 

“I’d love that, Sara, thank you,” Lisa says. “Just a fresh shirt and clean underwear would be amazing. I can wear these pants again. Do you need my sizes?”

 

Sara shakes her head. “Gideon doesn’t need them, but thanks. I’ll leave you to your own devices now, but come by the bridge when you’re done. Gideon can tell you how to get there. Ray is already hard at work with our resident scientist, mechanic, and former Time Master. Well, you met Rip last night, I heard, and you’ll meet Martin and Jax soon enough. I’ll stop by again to drop your clothes off. Oh, and feel free to help yourself to the makeup, Amaya and I share it already. Except, uh, not the mascara, obviously, sorry.”

 

“Thank you, Sara,” Lisa says, already feeling like she belongs. It’s a nice feeling.

 

She’s left alone, and she starts by scrubbing yesterday’s makeup off her face. She hopes having left her makeup on overnight doesn’t cause a breakout, but it’s too late to do anything about it now. Then she brushes her teeth, and is relieved to have the gross taste out of her mouth. She’s still got a bit of a headache, but feeling slightly cleaner helps a bit.

 

Next, she showers, and it’s probably the best shower she’s ever had in her life. When she steps out, wrapped in a towel, there’s a small pile of clothes on one of the stools, and she smiles as she steps back into the shower stall to dress. She’s not exactly modest, but she’d rather not have someone she doesn’t know walk in on her when she’s half-naked. That might be awkward, even if more for them than for her.

 

Dressed and hair dried, she rummages through the makeup scattered on the counter. There’s a BB-cream in her shade that she snags, along with some sharp black eyeliner and a dash of gold eyeshadow. A shimmery red-and-gold lipstick finishes the look, and she fakes a smile in the mirror. It looks real enough, and she sticks with it, sauntering out of the bathroom with a flick of her hair.

 

“Um, Gideon?” she asks the empty space of the hallway tentatively.

 

“Yes, Miss Snart?” that disembodied English voice she remembers hearing from the night before answers her.

 

“Where is the bridge?”

 

“Turn left and follow the hallway until it curves around, and you will reach the bridge,” Gideon replies.

 

“Um, thanks?”

 

Lisa follows the instructions, and then the sound of voices. She recognizes Ray’s voice, and the English guy—Rip—but there is another unfamiliar voice, raised in argument.

 

She steps onto the bridge to a flurry of activity. Ray is pacing, his hair a mess, as he argues over what seem to be semantics with an older, white-haired man. A young, black guy is watching with a glint of amusement in his eyes. A variety of other people are scattered off to the side, watching as Rip, arm-deep in the innards of the center console with his legs in the air, fiddles with wires. Mick waves at Lisa, and she smiles back.

 

“Lisa! Good morning!” Ray says in greeting as he catches sight of her. “And Leonard, good, thanks for joining us. We’re almost ready for the first trial.”

 

“Is he with me?” Lisa asks, spinning around but not seeing anyone besides the Legends.

 

“Yeah,” Ray says. “We figured that’s where he was, but it’s good to know. He wants me to tell you that yeah, this sucks.”

 

Oh. Lenny had heard her. She’s not sure if that makes things better or worse.

 

Rip jumps down from the console and shakes his arms out. “Okay, Mr. Jackson, your turn.”

 

The young guy stands up with a wide grin and replaces Rip, bracing his chest over the edge. “We should completely rework this set-up so we don’t have to do this whenever we want to do something drastic!” he calls over his shoulder, and Rip nods in agreement.

 

Lisa decides that now is probably a good time to introduce herself to the rest of the team. “I’m Lisa,” she says.

 

“Amaya,” says a pretty black woman.

 

The bro-y looking white guy introduces himself as, “Nate.”

 

“I’m Professor Martin Stein,” the old white man says, coming up to shake Lisa’s hand. “It’s lovely to meet you, Miss Snart. We’d heard a lot about you from your brother. Well, a lot coming from Mr. Snart. He was always very tight-lipped about, uh, everything.”

 

Lisa smirks. “Yeah, that’s Lenny alright. Nice to meet you, professor.”

 

“That young man draped over the console is Jefferson Jackson,” he continues, and Jax waves a hand out behind him.

 

“Hi, Lisa! I’m Jax! Nice to meet you!” he calls, and goes back to fiddling.

 

“And, of course, you know Mick, Ray, and Rip already,” the professor finishes.

 

Lisa nods. “What’s happening here?” she asks.

 

Ray wanders over. “We’re trying to pull Leonard out of the time stream, see if we can make him corporeal again. We’ve been to the Vanishing Point—ah, that’s where he, well, died—and there was no body there, so we’re _hoping_ that we won’t need to, like, find a coma patient or something and shove his consciousness in there. We’re hoping we can figure out how to make him corporeal and _himself_ again.”

 

He starts rattling off scientific terms at that point, and Lisa loses track of the conversation almost immediately.

 

“—what, Leonard?” Ray asks, cutting himself off in the middle of a sentence. “Oh, yeah, you’re right.” He turns back to Lisa from staring off into what Lisa can only see as empty space. “Sorry, I got caught up, and you have no idea what I’m saying, do you?”

 

Lisa shakes her head.

 

“Sorry,” Ray apologizes again. “I forget that not everyone is a scientist.”

 

“It’s okay, pretty,” Lisa says, patting his shoulder. “Just get my brother back.” Ray nods and Lisa walks over to sit down next to Mick.

 

She’s still upset with Mick, but he’s the only other person she knows, so she guesses she can give him a pass, for now. She hopes Lenny decks him when they get her brother back, though. If. If they get him back.

 

“Do you have any idea what’s going on?” Lisa asks Mick.

 

He shakes his head. “No clue. They’ve been pokin’ at the ship’s innards all day, though. Jax has been runnin’ back and forth between here and the engine room for the last hour ‘r so, and Haircut—that’s Ray—is building…somethin’.”

 

“Haircut?” Lisa asks, raising an eyebrow at him.

 

“Yeah,” Mick explains, “’cause, you know, his hair is all, neat and stuff.”

 

Lisa sighs. “What nicknames did Lenny have for him?”

 

Mick looks up and cocks his head, probably listening to Lenny telling him something. “Yeah, yeah, okay,” he says, but doesn’t elaborate further on what Lenny said. “He called him, uh, mostly Boy Scout. Then there was Pretty Boy a few times—”

 

“He certainly is that,” Lisa mutters.

 

“—and then, ah, shut up and stop your whinin’, Snart,” Mick says, up to thin air. It’s still weird, having Mick talk to her brother when she can’t see him. “ _Anyway_ , those were the most common ones. Well, those and _Raymond_. Snart just loves drawling out Haircut’s name.”

 

Lisa snickers. “I can hear him doing that.”

 

“He’s whinin’ about how we’re making fun of him,” Mick tells her.

 

“Sorry, Lenny,” Lisa says, trying to focus her eyes on where her brother seems to be. It hurts, so she stops.

 

Ray comes bounding over, looking so much like a puppy that Lisa almost laughs. God, her brother must just be head-over-heels for this over-excited dork.

 

“Okay, we’re ready,” he says. “Leonard?” Ray walks away, presumably with Lenny trailing along behind him. Lisa _hates_ not being able to see Lenny when other people can. She hates it more than anything.

 

Ray gestures in the empty air with his arms, around a spot on the floor, surrounded by some sort of metal circle laid out on the floor.

 

“Jax?” Ray asks.

 

Jax nods, and presses a button.

 

Nothing happens for one second, two seconds, three—

 

And then the room explodes in a flash of light and a single, painful scream, echoing through her eardrums, piercing through her skull.

 

The sound cuts off, and she hears the thump of a body hitting the floor. Lisa blinks away the bright spots in her eyes, and as soon as they clear, she gasps.

 

“Lenny?” she asks, jumping up and running over to her brother, lying on the floor with his legs crumpled up beneath him.

 

“I didn’t expect that to work,” Ray muses, but Lisa barely hears him. 

 

Lenny doesn’t twitch and Lisa, panicking, puts her head on his chest to hear that his heart is beating. It is, and she lets out a sigh of relief.

 

“Hey, Lisa, let’s get him to the med bay,” Ray says, putting a hand on her shoulder. She backs up and lets Mick lift Lenny up and carry him. She trails behind, in wonder.

 

It had worked. Her brother is _here_ , _alive_. She’s not sure why he’s not awake, but surely he’ll wake up soon, and then she’s never letting him out of her sight ever again.

 

Surely, he’ll wake up soon.

 

* * *

 

Lisa doesn’t leave Leonard’s bedside, and Ray is starting to worry about her. Well, actually, he’s past starting to worry. He’s worried.

 

He’s worried about Lisa. He’s worried about Leonard. He’s worried that he majorly screwed things up with his successful experiment.

 

Well, is it really successful if Leonard’s body is back, but they’re not sure about his mind?

 

It’s been weeks. They’ve had to go on missions, and still, Lisa sits in the med-bay. She’s still not used to time-jumps, but she’s getting more used to them. Leonard’s vitals are still fine, still normal. Gideon still says there’s nothing wrong, that his brain function is normal, that he _should_ be awake.

 

Leonard still doesn’t wake.

 

Ray is still worried.

 

He and Mick have stopped seeing Leonard’s ghost, and he takes that as a good sign. He takes that to mean that Leonard is in there, somewhere, successfully in his body, in his corporeal form.

 

He hopes. He _hopes_.

 

Leonard still doesn’t wake.

 

Ray takes food to Lisa, replaces her so she can shower and sleep in a real bed sometimes. They take shifts, to let Lisa get some sleep, with promises to immediately wake her if anything happens. Lisa doesn’t trust Gideon to let her know immediately, she doesn’t trust Gideon to keep an eye on her brother, so there’s always somebody at Leonard’s bedside.

 

It’s a good thing, though, to have a set of human eyes always watching. Ray trusts Gideon, of course he does, but she lacks the personal touch. The emotions.

 

Ray takes more shifts than anyone, except Lisa. The way he figures, it’s his fault, so he should keep watch as much as possible. Which is why he’s on duty when Leonard moves. It’s a small motion, and Ray only sees it out of the corner of his eye, over the tablet with the designs he’s working on for an upgrade to the suit.

 

He immediately is up, the tablet behind him on the chair. “Gideon, please get Lisa,” he says, leaning down over the bed, not even hearing if Gideon responds. “Leonard?” he asks, and Leonard stirs again, but doesn’t open his eyes.

 

Lisa rushes in a minute or so later, her hair thrown up into a ponytail, dressed in sweatpants and an over-sized t-shirt.

 

“Lenny?” she asks.

 

Ray shakes his head. “I don’t know. Maybe. He moved, he responded to my voice, maybe he’ll respond more to yours.”

 

Lisa nods and jumps up to sit on the edge of the cot, one leg tucked under her and the other hanging down off the side. “Lenny?” she asks again. “Can you hear me?”

 

He stirs again, and Lisa sniffs, blinking away tears. Ray can feel himself tearing up, too. He’s always been way too empathetic, he absorbs other’s emotions, and it doesn’t help that he was already feeling way too many emotions to stay clinical, to stay detached.

 

Ray walks around to Leonard’s other side, as the rest of the Legends gather in the med-bay. Gideon must have notified them, too. “Leonard?” he asks. “Can you hear us?”

 

“Lenny?” Lisa says, for a third time, and this time it does really seem like the third time is the charm, because Leonard opens his eyes a crack, before blinking them quickly shut again.

 

“Lis’?” he says, his voice harsh and raspy.

 

“I’m here,” she says, cupping his face in her hand. He smiles into it, and Ray swears he can feel his heart drop into his stomach. He’s never seen Leonard so unguarded, so _soft_.

 

Leonard slowly lifts a hand up, placing it over Lisa’s hand on his face. Then, still moving at a snail’s pace, he opens his eyes. “Hey, sis,” he says, and Lisa lets out a sound that’s half-laugh, half-sob, throwing her body down over his. “Oof, hi. You okay?”

 

“Am I okay?” Lisa asks, her face buried in his shoulder. “You’ve been unconscious for over a month!”

 

“What?” Leonard asks, brushing his sister’s hair out of his face to peer up at Ray and the rest of the team. “That long?”

 

Ray nods, and Leonard’s mouth twists up in a scowl as he continues to run his fingers through Lisa’s hair.

 

“How do you feel, Leonard?” Sara asks, deeming it safe to approach the cot.

 

Leonard considers her question for a minute, as Lisa peels herself up and wipes at her eyes. “Like the Tenth Doctor when he regenerated. Like I wanna sleep for another few days. Like I’m gonna cough up regeneration energy or some shit like that.”

 

Ray laughs at the reference, but shuts up quickly when nobody else laughs.

 

“Of course, _king of the nerds_ is the only one who gets my joke,” Leonard says, rolling his eyes. But he quickly negates the annoyed expression by winking subtly at Ray.

 

Oh.

 

Okay.

 

Leonard is winking at him.

 

That’s new.

 

Ray feels his face heating, but quickly distracts himself by fussing over the monitors and checking Leonard’s vitals, the professor offering commentary at his side.

 

Leonard allows the hubbub around him for a good hour, as the Legends swarm around him, bombarding him with questions and quips and comments about how glad they are that he’s back. But after a while, his eyes start to flutter, and Lisa looks over at Ray. He takes the hint, and shoos everyone away.

 

“Leonard needs to sleep, please give him some space. He’s not going anywhere, let him rest,” Ray says, and the team listens, pouring out of the room until Mick, Ray, and Lisa are the only ones left.

 

Leonard looks up at the three of them and smiles. It’s soft and sweet, and Ray has never seen anything quite so beautiful.

 

“You brought me back,” he says, glancing over at Ray. “You did it.”

 

“I promised I would, didn’t I?” Ray replies, walking over and placing a hand on Leonard’s shoulder. To Ray’s surprise, Leonard covers the hand with his own.

 

“Yeah. You did.” Leonard looks at him, and Ray can feel the intensity of it, even though Leonard’s sleep-hooded eyes. He’s vaguely aware of Lisa jumping down and pulling Mick out the door, but he only has eyes for Leonard.

 

Leonard, it seems, only has eyes for him, too.

 

“ _Raymond_ ,” he says, and then pauses.

 

“Yeah?” Ray prompts after a few seconds of silence, of the two of them just looking at each other.

 

“Come here,” Leonard says, trying to sound commanding through the rasp in his voice that didn’t completely go away with the four glasses of water he drank after someone got him a toothbrush (and mouthwash, when brushing his teeth didn’t feel _clean_ enough to him).

 

Ray complies, perching on the edge of the cot, a mirror of how Lisa had been sitting just a minute ago. “Hi,” he says, smiling down at Leonard.

 

Leonard snorts. “Hi, Boy Scout.”

 

“You actually _know_ that I’m an Eagle Scout so—”

 

Leonard reaches up, wrapping a hand around the back of Ray’s neck and pulling him down into a kiss. Ray squeaks, his body twisted at an odd angle, but he adjusts so he’s more comfortable, and then he can focus on kissing Leonard.

 

Kissing. Leonard. He’s _kissing_ Leonard. He’s kissing _Leonard_.

 

It’s slow and sweet and Ray thinks it might be because Leonard is exhausted, but he likes it so he doesn’t complain, doesn’t try to change the rhythm. Just revels in the press of Leonard’s mouth against his, Leonard’s teeth worrying gently at his lower lip.

 

Leonard pulls back after a minute, his pupils blown and a smile playing across those lips that Ray had just been kissing. Kissing!

 

Leonard just kissed him!

 

He opens his mouth to say something, but no sounds come out. Leonard laughs at him.

 

“Did I finally figure out how to shut you up?” he asks, his grin turning mischievous.

 

Ray opens his mouth again, but closes it just as quickly to nod instead.

 

Leonard laughs again, a gorgeous, deep laugh, and Ray has never heard a sound he loves quite so much.

 

“I’m gonna have to use that more often,” he says with a slow, lazy wink.

 

Ray still can’t get words out, so he drops, resting his forehead on Leonard’s shoulder. Leonard chuckles and starts stroking his hair, running fingers through it and scratching his fingernails lightly along Ray’s scalp.

 

“Okay, Raymond,” Leonard says after a minute, “as nice as this is, I’m gonna pass out at any second. Plus, we should probably let Lis’ back in.”

 

Ray finds his voice, finally. “Yeah,” he croaks out, and then clears his throat to try again. “Yeah, I’ll let you get to sleep. Lisa will probably keep you company, she’s been by your side the whole time, except when she needed to sleep, then she had us set up watch schedules so there was always someone here.” He gets up to collect Lisa and Mick from outside, but Leonard stops him briefly, grabbing at his hand.

 

“Hey, Raymond,” he says, rubbing his thumb along the back of Ray’s hand, “ _thank you_.”

 

Ray smiles at him and lets his hand slip out of Leonard’s as he walks out.

 

“Thanks for, uh, giving us space guys,” he says, red-faced, to Lisa and Mick, who both grin at him like sharks about to have a tasty meal. Oh, Ray is so screwed.

 

“You are _so very_ welcome,” Lisa purrs. “Tell me, what are your intentions with my brother’s heart?” She drags her fingernails along Ray’s chest while Mick snickers.

 

“Um, uh,” Ray stammers. He’s gotten to know Lisa pretty well over the past month, but he’s still terrified of her in this moment. “I just, uh, I really like him? He, uh, I mean he kissed _me_ , so really you should ask him, uh, okay, that’s not a great idea, he’s probably asleep by now—”

 

“Ray,” Lisa says, her voice as sickly sweet as it had been when they’d first met, “I just want you to know that, no matter how much I may like you, if you break my brother’s heart, you will have more than just a _heart_ of gold, if you get my meaning.”

 

Ray gulps and nods quickly, really glad that Lisa doesn’t have her gold gun on her right now. She grins, wide and devilish, and pats his cheek, before heading back into the med-bay. Mick snickers, punches Ray in the shoulder, and follows her in. Ray stands in the middle of the hallway, stunned.

 

Leonard had kissed him. He’d gotten the shovel talk from Lisa. The kiss was more than a thank-you kiss, Ray had guessed at that. Well, hoped for that. Lisa’s reaction only makes it clearer that the kiss had meant something. It had felt like it meant something, but Ray hopes he wasn’t reading too much into it.

 

No, Leonard had kissed him. Ray can read affection into that. He can guess that Leonard has feelings for him. _Leonard_. Has feelings for _him_.

 

Ray feels a smile bubbling up, feels it overtake his face, and he walks off to rejoin the team, grinning wide.

 

* * *

 

The next few days are a struggle. Leonard feels as weak as a newborn calf. He can barely hobble to the bathroom without help, can barely stand for longer than a few seconds without needing to lean on something. He stays in the med-bay, since Gideon wants to monitor his vitals for at least a few more days.

 

He gets the feeling Gideon isn’t telling him something, but maybe that’s just his general distrust of sentient AIs.

 

Anyway, he’s rarely without Lisa, or Mick, or Raymond.

 

He and Raymond don’t kiss again, in those few days. There’s always someone else around, always something else going on, always some sort of test someone wants to run on him. But Raymond will touch his shoulder briefly, clasp his hand momentarily, smile at him brightly. It makes Leonard feel all warm and cozy and, ugh, it’s disgusting.

 

He loves it.

 

It’s icky and gushy and Leonard just can’t get enough. All he wants is to be locked in a room with Raymond for a few hours and just make out with the goddamn Boy Scout. Just for a few hours.

 

Well, it seems as if he’s about to get his chance.

 

“What do you mean you’re out of rooms?” Leonard asks Sara, annoyed.

 

Sara rolls her eyes. “We’ve taken on new teammates who you’ve actually _met_ , and we don’t have any room for anyone else.”

 

“Where has Lisa been sleeping?” he asks.

 

“In my bed,” Sara smirks, and Leonard feels murderous.

 

“Sara, I swear to god—”

 

Sara cuts him off. “I haven’t touched your sister, Leonard, I don’t have a death wish. It’s purely platonic, and we have different schedules anyway.”

 

Leonard sighs. “So, what? You’re gonna make me share a room with Mick?”

 

Sara’s eyes sparkle, and Leonard starts to worry. “No, Mick said you’ll kill each other if we make you two share a room. He says he snores and you’re a light sleeper and you like to sleep with your gun next to your bed, which is weird but relatable. Anyway,” she smirks, “Jax is installing another bunk in Ray’s room.”

 

Leonard stares at her. “You’re rooming me with…Raymond?”

 

Sara shrugs, artfully blasé, “It was either that or stick Ray with Nate and—”

 

“Yeah, this is better,” Leonard says, quickly. “Does Raymond know?”

 

“Yup,” Sara says. “We asked him first, who do you think we are?”

 

Leonard glares. “A bunch of assholes.”

 

Sara laughs at him. “You’re not wrong. But, hey, if you’re gonna see anyone in various states of undress, I’m sure _you_ would want it to be Ray.”

 

Leonard can’t deny it, so he doesn’t. And, of course, Raymond picks that moment to walk into the med bay.

 

“I hear we’re gonna be roommates, Boy Scout,” Leonard says, as greeting.

 

Raymond nods, looking torn between excitement and anxiety. “Is that okay? Sara said they’d already asked you…” He trails off, looking at Sara’s evil grin. “They didn’t ask you, did they?”

 

“Nope,” Leonard says.

 

“Is it okay?” Raymond asks again.

 

“Yeah, Raymond,” Leonard says, trying to sound reassuring. Sara winks at Leonard and slips out, Leonard rolling her eyes at her. “I’m gonna murder the captain, but that’s fine.” He looks up and meets Raymond’s eyes. “It’s _fine_ , Raymond, I’m okay bunking with you. Might actually be nice; won’t have to sneak into each other’s rooms for full on make out sessions.”

 

Raymond perks up at that. “Yeah?” he asks, walking over to the bed. “You want there to be, uh, more of that?”

 

Leonard gestures Raymond closer so he can pull the other man in for a light, quick kiss. “I do,” he says, pulling away regretfully, because _someone_ will most likely walk into the med-bay in the next few minutes.

 

“I, uh, I want that too,” Raymond says, his face flushing pink. It’s _cute_ and Leonard has to stop himself from pulling Raymond down on top of him. He’s still too tired and weak for anything past kissing, anyway. Unfortunately.

 

Lisa saunters in, taking in Raymond’s red face and Leonard’s cheeky grin and rolls her eyes. “Thank god you two are actually going to get a room,” she mutters. “I’m _so over_ walking in on this.”

 

“L _isa_ ,” Leonard says, remembering what Sara told him earlier. “How’s sleeping with Sara?”

 

Raymond chokes on air and Leonard reaches up to pat his back. Lisa laughs.

 

“It’s lovely, dear brother. She’s very cuddly, you wouldn’t think she would be but—”

 

“No, I changed my mind, I don’t wanna know,” Leonard says, cutting her off.

 

“F _ine_ , but don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Lisa says. “Oh, and the bed’s ready if you want to head to _your_ room.”

 

Leonard and Raymond look at each other and shrug. “Yeah, okay,” Leonard says, and steps carefully down off the cot. He kind of supports his own weight, for a few seconds. Then he feels his legs start to shake, but before he can sit down heavily again on the cot, Raymond is swooping in, supporting him.

 

“What a gentleman,” Leonard says, flirting to mask his annoyance at needing help in the first place.

 

Raymond’s blush makes it partially worth it. Lisa lets them head off, laughing behind them as they make their way slowly to _their_ room.

 

“You’d think they could, like, turn the arsenal into a bedroom, right?” Leonard mutters, halfway down the hallway.

 

Raymond glances sideways at him. “Do you not want to room with me? Because I can always double up with Nate and—”

 

“That’s not what I said, Boy Scout. I’m not bitching, I’m just saying, they did this on purpose,” Leonard responds.

 

“Oh.” Raymond considers his words for a minute. “You _still_ know I’m an Eagle Scout, Leonard.”

 

Leonard rolls his eyes, falling back against one of the walls. Raymond adjusts to catch him, pressing their bodies together to keep Leonard upright. Perfect, exactly what Leonard had hoped for.

 

He leans forward, catching Raymond’s mouth in a soft kiss. Raymond responds eagerly, his hands still supporting Leonard, but clutching at his sides instead of just propping him up. God, Leonard wishes he had any sort of strength right now. The things he’d do to Raymond—

 

“Aw, man, _really?_ ” Jax says, walking into the hallway. “This is _literally_ why we put you two in a room together. Can you just, not?”

 

Raymond pulls out of the kiss but doesn’t pull back from Leonard. “Sorry, Jax,” he says, sounding somewhat sheepish.

 

“It’s my fault, kid,” Leonard drawls, his smile loose and lazy. “Won’t happen again…today.”

 

Jax mutters something about annoying people getting together and walks off, leaving Leonard and Raymond laughing behind him.

 

“We should keep going,” Raymond says, pressing a quick kiss against Leonard’s lips.

 

“Lead the way, Raymond.”

 

The new bed in Raymond’s room is lower to the ground than the original bed, which suits Leonard just fine. It’s also slightly bigger, which he definitely appreciates. And it’s comfortable, he notes, as Raymond lowers him down into it.

 

The door slides shut, and as tired as Leonard is, all he wants to do is kiss Raymond. So he does, pulling Raymond down and on top of him, threading his fingers through the other man’s soft, thick hair.

 

Raymond moves against him, and Leonard wishes his body wasn’t so exhausted, because he’d love to get worked up, he’d love to get off, but he can barely stand, let alone get turned on, so he’s going to have to make do with making out. He breaks out of the kiss to tell Raymond that, just so Raymond knows that this is the extent of what’s going to happen between them for a while. At least until Leonard gets his strength back.

 

“That’s fine with me,” Raymond says, propping himself on one elbow and stroking Leonard’s face with his other hand. “I don’t need any more than this. I’m happy to just kiss you forever,” he says, and Leonard doesn’t understand how he got so lucky.

 

An hour or so later, their lips are swollen and they’re breathing hard, and Leonard feels like he might pass out. He says as much, and Raymond rolls off to cuddle up against his side instead.

 

“You should get some sleep,” he says. “Want me to go?”

 

Leonard shakes his head. “You can stay, if you want.”

 

“I’d like that.” They’re quiet for a minute, but Raymond has to say one more thing. “I’m never gonna use my own bed again, am I?”

 

Leonard laughs, low and warm. “I doubt it, Boy Scout. You’re mine now, and I’m not letting you go.”

 

Raymond nuzzles up closer. “I like the sound of that,” he says.

 

“Mmm, me too,” Leonard says, and lets his eyes close, letting Raymond’s even breathing carry him off to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to the coldatomies chat for beta-ing and being supportive and awesome and I love you alllllll 
> 
> say hi to me on [tumblr](http://snartbaiting.tumblr.com)


End file.
